Browse Categories Exercises for a Healthy Heart
Having regular exercise supports your heart and makes your circulatory system function appropriately. Consider having regular exercise, if you desire to live longer or maintain a healthy heart. Exercise could help stop your disease from getting worse. Engaging in regular exercise could also help you relieve pain and be more productive.
What are the Benefits of Exercise?
Regular exercise can help you to manage the risk factors that could cause harm to your heart.
- It helps to reduce your blood pressure
- It helps you to sustain your weight loss at a rate suitable for a healthy heart
- It helps lower the risks of overweight or obesity
- It helps to improve your blood cholesterol
People who do not engage in physical activities are more likely to develop heart disease than people who exercise regularly. Studies show that lack of exercise along with high blood pressure, smoking, and high blood cholesterol contribute to heart disease.
Other important benefits of exercise include:
- Exercise stimulates the heart and supports lung function. It improves your heart’s ability to carry blood to the lungs and all over the body. It also makes the capillaries expand, causing them to deliver more oxygen to your body and remove waste products.
- Exercise limits your risks for coronary heart disease and other dangerous diseases.
- Exercise can also help to reduce the risk of having a heart attack.
What are the Types of Exercises for Your Heart Health?
Three types of exercises can help improve your heart condition. They are:
- Aerobic Exercise
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Aerobic exercises involve moving the muscles in your arms and legs to make you feel warm and slightly out of breath. The activities help to increase your heart rate and make you sweat. Examples include walking, swimming, cycling, gardening, stair climbing, and playing tennis. You do not need to go to the gym or use expensive equipment.
Aerobic exercise should be done at least 30 minutes, for 5 days a week, i.e. 150 minutes per week. However, you can start gradually.
You can go for a 5-minute morning walk and a 5-minute evening walk. You can increase it in your next walking session. Aerobic exercise is an activity that reduces your blood pressure and improves your cholesterol levels. This makes it possible to prevent you from having a heart disease. It also helps you to maintain a healthy weight.
Make sure to get your doctor’s approval before you start exercising if you have not been active in a while or have an ongoing health condition.
- Resistance Training
Resistance training involves physical activities that can help you reduce body fat. Examples include working out with dumbbells or hand weights, squats, push-ups, and working out with resistance bands.
According to the American College of Sports Medicine, you should engage in resistance training at least two times a week. It helps to enhance your muscular strength, power, and endurance.
The benefits of resistance workout for a healthy heart include:
- Increase in blood flow. A healthy circulatory system is essential for providing your body with the oxygen and nutrients it needs to function well.
- It lowers the chance of having a heart attack.
- It makes you have a quality and sound sleep.
- It helps to reduce stomach or body fat.
When you combine aerobic exercise and resistance workouts, it promotes your heart and overall well-being. The activities help you build strength and improve the state of your heart.
- Balance and Flexibility Exercises
Source: https://www.healthline.com/health/exercise-fitness/yoga-for-flexibility
Stretching is a common physical activity in this category. It does not directly improve your heart health but helps you stay flexible. It also allows you to become free of pain in your joints and muscles. This exercise enables you to continue or maintain anaerobic and resistance training.
Balance and flexibility exercises include basic stretches or yoga. You should do this before and after your other exercises. It helps to improve your stability or strength for other types of exercises. It is necessary for you to move freely and with flexibility. However, a lack of exercise, stress, aging, and bad posture can all make your muscles rigid and tight, which can reduce your flexibility. Regular yoga practice is an effective activity for reducing stress in your muscles and increasing your range of motion. The key to a successful exercise is to begin slowly and work your way up to holding a position longer while maintaining the correct posture.
What are the safety precautions when exercising?
Some of the precautions to ensure your safety when exercising include:
- Wear the right shoes and use the right equipment to avoid injury.
- Consult a physiotherapist or a qualified fitness instructor if you have a record of injury or medical condition.
- Ensure that you have a day or two days in a way to recover.
- Stop exercising immediately if you experience chest or neck pain.
- Avoid exercising when you are dehydrated. Drink a lot of water or fluid an hour before you start exercising. Also, drink water during the breaks and after exercising to ensure you are well hydrated.
- Do not take alcohol and coffee before and after workouts, as it promotes fluid loss.
- It is important to stretch after exercising. It helps you to recover or reduce muscle soreness.
Committing to exercise regularly can be challenging, but you can make it fun by doing it with your friends or family.
It is important to consult your healthcare professional to know what type and intensity of exercise is best or safe for you. Also, inform your doctor or physiotherapist immediately if you experience pain while exercising.
